


Eating Habits

by aProcrastinatingOrange



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, But I kinda don't know what they would be, Doctor Will Solace, Hurt!Annabeth, Hurt/Comfort, I don't think it's a disorder but idk, I should probably have more but IDK, Protective Percy Jackson, Sad!Annabeth, eating problems, no beta we die like women, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29443536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aProcrastinatingOrange/pseuds/aProcrastinatingOrange
Summary: I am literally so bad at summaries:Annabeth hasn’t been eating the same since Tartarus. Here is the consequences of this problem.Or: Annabeth has a rough time, tries to figure out how to handle it herself, it doesn't really work, then deals with the aftermathThe tags and authors note give more information than this I’m pretty sure
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Eating Habits

**Author's Note:**

> Hello,
> 
> So I know I have another story that I should be working on, but this came to me and I had to write it down. It's honestly much longer than I thought it would be, considering I made it to like 500 words and was like 'naw there isn't gonna be much after this.' Then the story kept going and here we are. 
> 
> Disclaimer, I don't actually own any of the Percy Jackson characters (unfortunately)
> 
> I don't exactly know how to say what the triggers would be, since this is actually related to what happens in my life (the problem, not exactly the ending) so I'm going to try my best. There is a reference to something close to a panic attack, and I don't think it's an eating disorder but it includes eating issues so that could be rough for some people.
> 
> Also no beta so I'm sorry for the bad English, it's my first language.

Ever since coming back from Tartarus, Annabeth tended to eat less than before. She knew it was a bad idea, but the lack of hunger wasn’t helping. Yes, she would actually eat when someone put food in front of her, that wasn’t a problem. Times when she would work out, teach sword fighting, climb the rock wall, she could eat without any prompting. But the days when she wouldn’t want to do anything, where the thoughts of Tartarus just zapped all her energy, the need to eat just didn’t register.

Those days she would sit with Percy in cabin three for hours, comforted by his presence. At first, he had the same problem, not eating because, at that point, too much food would make them both sick. But Annabeth could tell he was growing out of it from the muscle mass that he was gaining back. Now, even on the bad days, he would grab some food for them during meals. She would eat to keep appearance, but maybe only a bite or two.

Annabeth didn’t tell anyone about the situation. Why would she? She didn’t believe she was anorexic, since she felt fine with her body weight. Yes, it was under average, but that wasn't the main reason behind her eating habits. Or bulimic, because she definitely wasn't trying to throw food back up on purpose. There were just times where it didn’t feel like it was needed.

She usually would wake up in the morning being just fine, yell at everyone to wake up like she always had as a counselor, go to the bathrooms and get ready, then start her walk over to breakfast. On the way though, her eyelids having this weird type of heaviness that didn’t seem like a symptom of being tired. It escalated to not being able to look in any direction but forward, otherwise she would become dizzy with double vision. She would calm herself down at the table, usually having an apple to settle her stomach, then drag Percy to his cabin, needed to relax for about half an hour till she was stable again.

After she took those days off though, the worse she would feel the next day. Nausea came next, which got to the point of not being able to make it to breakfast after getting ready. She would stay in the bathroom for the same 30 – now pushing onto 40 – minutes, dry heaving since she hadn’t any food yet.

Percy, of course, noticed her absence. He would come to check on her after breakfast, but at that point, she would be fine. She hated the thought of ever lying to him, but it wasn’t technically a lie. She would basically be perfect for the rest of the day, with the thoughts of the rough morning long behind her.

This happened on and off for about a month. Annabeth kept this all to herself, it wasn’t impeding on her life that much, with it not being a constant. So, she tried to figure out what was causing the morning discomfort. Leo was finally able to get everyone a laptop and phone while still being safe, so she researched her symptoms to try and pinpoint the issue. Lack of Vitamin D could cause dizziness, so she took some supplements to help her out. Unfortunately, it would take a couple of months to see results, but she was willing to wait. Another thing was exercise, so she would get up early a couple of times a week and do more than she would have on a regular day. This seemed to help, but only sometimes.

Then one day, her body hit the breaking point.

She was a bit more tired than usual that morning but chalked it up as going to bed late, distracted by an architecture book that she had to read that summer before college. She went through the morning routine a little slower than usual, body feeling a kind of heavy that got worse as the morning progressed. When it got to the walk to breakfast, she was lagging behind the rest of her cabin, by now they all knew she would sometimes need space in the morning. Annabeth knew that Malcolm worried about her, but she brushed him off every time.

Suddenly, she felt like she was hit by a freight train. Her vision doubled and she has a horrible sense of vertigo. Her stomach tied up in knots, and when she tried to take what she thought was a normal step, her foot shockingly slammed onto the ground when she misjudged how high she needed to lift her leg. She slid into almost a split even though it looked like it was perfectly normal, and her instincts made her reach out to find something to grab onto. With nothing nearby, she instantly fell over. Even though the comfort of something sturdy probably wouldn’t have even helped.

Honestly, she was terrified. She could barely breathe through the panic, and the double vision made her want to throw up. Even though she knew she was laying on the ground, she felt like she was falling through the floor. The thought of sitting up was impossible, the heaviness of her body was as if she weighed a million pounds.

She laid there for what felt like hours before there were hands lifting her up. This ended up making the situation almost worse. The feeling of being off the ground made her so unsteady she wanted just to roll away from whoever was holding her. For a moment, she actually felt like she pulled it off, even though her body was too heavy to move, much less give a fight to the person with strong hands.

Finally, the lightheadedness and quick movements got to her, and she promptly passed out.

_________________________________________

Percy was terrified when he heard Will running towards him and calling his name at breakfast. Once he heard “Annabeth… help… please…” He was up and going, following Will who had already turned around and was running back to the cabins.

He was going as fast as he could but somehow managed to run even faster once he saw his Wise Girl laying on the ground. He was relieved slightly when he was close enough to see she was still breathing, but the quick rise and fall of her chest made that relief turn to something even worse.

He slid to the ground in front of her, but her eyes were glazed over and darting in every direction. “Hey Annabeth, it’s me it’s Percy.” He tried to calm her down from what he thought was a panic attack. They have had plenty of them after the war, but as time passed, they had both started to grow out of them.

He wanted to smack himself. He knew something was up. Even though she would constantly say she was alright, something in his gut was telling him it wasn’t. Gods, he should have listened to the feeling. At the same time, he knew that if she wanted to tell him she would, and if he pushed her too far, she would just push back.

Will was there a moment later, telling Percy about how he saw her collapse and that they needed to bring her to the infirmary, but he was barely paying much attention. Instead, he lifted her up and tried to get her out of there as quickly as possible because a crowd was starting to form.

This ended up being a bad idea because she groaned and tried to roll out of his arms. Percy’s heart broke but slowed down just enough to calm her down. Will was next to him trying to take her pulse and check other doctor things, but Percy could only look at her face and how pale it was.

It took much longer than Percy remembered to get to the infirmary, but once he walked in the door Will and another Apollo kid started scrambling around. Will gestured to a bed to lay Annabeth down in, which Percy did as slowly as possible since she clearly didn’t like being moved. Percy was pushed out of the way, which he understood why, but still hated how he couldn’t comfort his girlfriend. One of the kids put an IV in her arm while Will tried to get her to swallow some ambrosia. Percy felt absolutely useless as he watched his girlfriend lay in the infirmary bed, shaking like a leaf and struggling to breathe.

After a few minutes, which felt way too long for Percy’s liking, they finally got her to eat the food without gagging it back up. Her breathing slowed and Percy could have been fooled into thinking nothing had happened if not for the IV in her arm. Will sighed and stepped to the side, giving Percy a small smile and a nod, gesturing that she would be fine. Percy could have cried in relief and he dashed over and grabbed her hand lightly, not risking waking her.

After a quiet conversation with Will, the other kid left, probably to go get the breakfast they all missed with the scare. Will seemed to give them some space but didn’t leave the room, waiting for Annabeth to wake up to make sure everything was alright. It made sense, Will was a doctor after all, but that didn’t mean Percy 100% appreciated it.

An hour later, after Will quickly ran to get some food and Percy promising to call if she woke up, Annabeth groaned and turn onto her side. Percy stood up and Will came over to check the IV. Her eyes fluttered open to then settle on Percy, and he gave the most genuine smile he could muster. “Hey Wise Girl, how ya feeling?”

She didn’t answer the question and instead tried to sit up at look at her surroundings. “What happened? Where am…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened, her facial expression going from confusion to almost what seemed like horror.

“Percy…” Her breath caught again, and he squeezed her hand in reassurance.

“It’s alright ‘Beth. I’m here, you’re okay.” Will had left at some point, probably understanding the privacy of the conversation they were about to have. They would definitely have to tell him at some point, but right now clearly wasn’t the time.

And with that, she burst into tears.

_________________________________________

Annabeth was extremely embarrassed. Not only had she had a breakdown, but she did in front of who knows how many people at camp. And here she was, at the infirmary with a problem that she swore she could fix herself. Yes, Percy was there and was holding her sweetly as she cried her eyes out, but it was a short-term comfort. Once she started to calm down, he slightly pulled away so he could look at her face.

Annabeth quickly looked away, not wanting to see his expression, but he gently lifted his hands to her cheeks and turned her back, eyes locking onto each other. Tears threatened to spill again, but he touched their foreheads together, his mouth an inch away from hers.

“It’s alright, I’m here,” Percy said for probably the millionth time that day, but Annabeth didn’t want to stop hearing it. It gave her the stability that she was missing earlier, and even though she hoped Percy would never find out about this, she couldn’t have been more grateful for him being there.

He leaned back again, grabbing her hands and giving them a slight squeeze. After a moment of silence, he finally asked the million-dollar question. “Can you tell me what happened?” She took a shaky breath and looked at their hands. It was out in the open now, there was no point in hiding anything. Still, she felt as if she was giving up a huge secret.

“I’ve been having this problem for a couple of months. I don’t know, it started with me just feeling kind of off in the morning for a bit. Slightly dizzy, nauseous, the works.” She let out a quick laugh at the situation, seeing the worry in Percy’s eyes. “But today, Gods, it felt like I was drunk or something. I guess I’ve never actually been drunk, but you know the simulations at school when you have to put on the stupid goggles filled with Vaseline? ‘Cause that totally stops people from underage drinking.” By then, she was laughing hysterically and couldn’t focus on anything.

“Damn it felt like I was upside down, but you know, obviously that wasn’t the case. And everything was spinning, which you would think is funny but man it is not.” She was shaking again, trying to play off her problems like it was nothing but probably making it sound even worse. She opened her mouth to go off some more when she looked back at Percy’s face. He looked almost… scared. It threw Annabeth for a loop, if anything she thought he would look at her with pity, which was also one of the reasons she didn’t want to tell anyone.

There was another moment of silence while both of them tried to collect their thoughts. He was the one looking at their hands now, but after a bit he brought one up to his face, kissing her knuckles softly and slowly. “Annabeth, why didn’t you tell me?” Percy was unnaturally quiet as he talked.

“I just didn’t want you to worry.”

Percy chuckled. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one in this relationship?” She was taken back before remembering that this was usually how Percy dealt with tense situations. By trying to lighten the mood and make slight jokes.

“Yeah well, I guess I overestimated my intelligence this time.” Percy looked shocked at the confession but went back to the soft smile, which she returned. “I’m sorry, I should have told you.”

“It’s alright. I’m just glad you did.” Annabeth nodded, both of them knowing that the problem won’t just magically go away. “How about I go get Will, and we can try and figure this out?” She gave him another small nod as he pecked her lips before heading out.

________________________________________

“After running some tests,” Will announced, “it seems that your problem is lack of nutrients.” Annabeth stared at him in what felt like shock. Percy was sitting next to her, and thankfully he still knew how to answer.

“What would that mean exactly?”

“Well, you were telling me how you would tend to eat less when you were less active. Because of this, when you do start activities in the morning, as little as just walking to breakfast, your body doesn’t have anything calories or anything to ‘keep it running’, so you have that reaction.” Annabeth knew Will was avoiding calling it an episode, because the first time she heard it, the description making her feel worse than she already was.

But now, hearing the diagnosis, the shock turned into almost relief. She had been trying so hard to figure out what was causing her problem – and yeah using the internet was not the greatest idea – but laying it out like that made it sound like it was obvious. She could have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Thanks, Will.” She looked over at Percy with almost a confident smile. They could handle this. Yes, some days it would be bad, and mornings would be rough, but they had each other, and they’ve dealt with much worse.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you liked my word dump what kind of happens in my life. I don't know, I was feeling like shit this morning (basically the level of can't really look around) and I read something about Percy and Annabeth not eating after Tartarus. It kind of triggered me in a way that it isn't really addressed how their body could react to the lack of food. (even though this is just my experience, not saying that this happens to everyone)
> 
> I have a strong metabolism, which causes me to be slightly underweight and I can tend to eat less than others around me. When going to college, it actually made this problem worse, since I didn't do as much exercising and eating as I did at home. So this is what would happen to me in the morning. I tried to explain it as best as I could, but in the moment it's just really scary, and afterward, it can be kind of hard to explain. I tried to figure out the problem without telling anyone, and at the same didn't really fix it because I would just stop going outside. Once I actually fell down the stairs and went to the ER nervous that I tore my ACL (I had done this in the past so it felt similar). I still didn't tell anyone (like an idiot) till a few months ago.
> 
> But for the end of the story, I kind of made my own flair because I sadly don't have a sweet boyfriend like Percy, it was my parents. I also changed it to what I wished would happen, because my parents did get slightly mad that I hadn't told them (of course they were also really worried) so yeah Annabeth gets more comfort than I ended up getting. 
> 
> I also made up the doctor thing actually being useful, because when we would bring it up to them they would have no fucking idea. I found out myself that I would just be better if I ate more food than I would sometimes want. 
> 
> So this is me venting my problems onto my favorite characters because I like making them suffer and I needed to get this out of my system. I also chose specifically Annabeth over Percy (even though I love him having the problems) because this felt like it worked a bit more with her character, even though they both could kind of be OOC (sorry about that btw)
> 
> And finally, after this crazy word dump about my life that no one probably wanted to read about, please please PLEASE get help if something about you feels off. WebMD is something that you want to have help you, but it tends to make things worse or make you come up with wrong solutions. I suffered from this for over a year, with the fear that every morning I could go through this situation, so I know it can be hard but don't stay quiet about it. (Yes I am a horrible example but I had to get that out)


End file.
